The suspicious 1774 death of Henry Beck: Part II

I thought I'd add some more images and transcriptions from the research I did back when I was really obsessed with The suspicious 1774 death of Henry Beck. 

(I wrote this post on my phone so please forgive any weird formatting, etc)

Henry Beck, from what I can tell, was born in the Netherlands and arrived in Bucks County in 1773 and was indentured to William Meredith in September that same year, for a term of seven years.¹

Possible related news item: Philadelphia, January 18, 1773. Just arrived from Rotterdam, in the Brigantine Morning-star, Captain George Dempster (and now to be seen at Mr Martin Knoll’s, the upper End of Second Street) a parcel of healthy Palatines; whose Freights are to be disposed of, by enquiring of Enoch Story, Broker

At the time of Henry's death, Mary and William Meredith has only been married about six months. On August 2, 1773, John Dyer had recorded "Mary Shocke or Steiner married to Wm Meredith" in his diary. Paging back almost exactly a year, his entry for August 25, 1772 reads "John Shokea married to Mary Steiner."

So what happened to John Schoke/Shokea? Well, "John Shokea killed with a waggon about noon this Day," Dyer writes on October 26 that same year. 

I actually made a nerdy little database of events for this in Notion. Here's a screenshot: 

Three days after his initial inquest on January 15, Coroner George Fell returned and conducted two more interviews. The one with Mary Foddel, (I can't tell whether she's a servant in the household or just a visitor) is pretty interesting.

Transcription, with paragraph breaks added because yeesh, wall of text:

The Deposition of Mary Foddel taken by George Fell Coroner of the County of Bucks on the Eighteenth Day of January 1774

Who saith 

That on the Twelfth Day of January 1774 When I came to the House of William Meredith the Servant Man was sitting in the Corner, eating his Dinner and he was Trembling very much, he was eating Potatoes with the Skin on and had some Buckwheat Cake with them, his Mistress told him to get up, he could eat his Meal fast enough _Now you want to eat a whole Day at your Potatoes_ Damn you Get up you have eat enough_ 

She took the plate from him, and he kept one Potatoe & a piece of Cake, She set the Plate of Potatoes on the Dresser, Then he went into the Corner, So Meredith & his Wife ordered the Servant to go on the Floor and Dance for that Gentlewoman So he went and danced, 

I told them to bid him leave off, for he did not look like a Dancer, So he left off and went to the dresser, and took up the Cup to drink, then his Mistress took it from him, and Says Damn you -- you shan't have another Drink of Cyder, for you are as drunk as a hog. 

Then Meredith said to his Wife let him have some more Drink, but he Got none, So he went to the Chimney Corner again, Then they bid him Sing, So he singed some Dutch Songs, 

So his Master told him to come, and sit down by him, then he was going to sit by his Master, and his Mistress took him by the Jacket and pulled him back, So she pushed him Down on a Chair, and Says, God Damn you_ you good for nothing bugbear [?], 

So she took up a Club about Two feet in length, and about half as thick as my Arm and gave him Two Strokes on his left Shoulder, Midling hard, 

Then Meredith told his Wife she should not lick him, his Wife told him, She would not take it of her own Father, for him ... before his Master, So his Master told him to come, and sit down by him again, then I told him in Dutch not to go that way, or else he would Get another licking. 

So then he went round and Sat down by his Master, and he told him to sing, So he Singed, then he went into the Chimney Corner again, then his Master told him to go and Buss [kiss] me -- So I told him he should not send him to Buss me for I would not let him 

So he told him three or four times more to buss me, So I got up and said he should not come, for he should not buss me for a Dollar, 

Then Meredith Said if you wont let him you can push him down for he is Very Weak, either on the floor or in the Fire, So I told him in dutch not to come or I would push him off. 

The he stroaked his Master's Face, and bussed him, Then he went into the chimney Corner, and his Master had a pint of Cyder by the Fire, and offered him a Drink, Then his Mistress took up a Stick and told him if he did take it, She would knock it out of his Hand, So then his Master told him he should have some, 

Then he took hold of the Pint, Then his Mistress took hold of the pint And throwed the Cyder in the Fire, Then She Damned him again and told him he should not have no more Cyder for the must go and Cut Straw, and he would cut himself and then We shall have the blame, Then his Master sent him to the Barn to Cut Straw, So then I went home and Said no more As Witness my Hand

her
Mary X Fodel
mark

I Certify the above Writing to be a true Copy of Mary Fodel's Deposition taken before me

George Fell 
Coroner

Wow. So that's what it was like in the Meredith household. Mary Meredith wants Henry Beck to sing and dance, then she beats him with a club; William wants Beck to keep drinking and also to go kiss Mary Foddel. Instead, Henry Beck is stroking William's face and kissing him. Then he goes to cut some hay and drops dead. What the heck else went on in that place?

The day after Fell interviewed Mary Foddel, Mary and William Meredith were taken to jail in Newtown. They were still there in April, according to the Court of Oyer and Terminer:

Return of kings Prisoners Now in The Custody of Samuel Biles Sherriff of Bucks County to Be Tried at a Court of Oyer & Terminer To be held at Newtown This Fifth Day of April Anno Domini 1774

Viz;

William & Mary Meredith for comitting an assault upon the Body of Henry Beck Their servant Man on the 12th day of January Anno Domini 1774 Whereby he Languishing untill The fourteenth & Then Died as it is said &c

That same year, the Merediths were found not guilty:

What happened to them after that? I can't tell you much at this point. William Meredith appears in the 1798 Direct Tax for Plumstead Township, so either he was still alive or it's somebody else with the same name. (Yeah, sorry.) It's been a few years since I did this research, and I've gotten a little better at it. I'd love to figure out where they lived, which wouldn't be super difficult. So ... Fingers crossed? 

---

1. Record of Indentures of Individuals Bound Out as Apprentices, Servants, Etc. Philadelphia, PA, USA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1905.

Time travel: Barron's Garage, Carversville

Here's another bit of time-travel fun: Carversville, from the 1930s to 2023. I'm not good with cars, so you'll have to help me with pinpointing a date for this one — The one mention I've found for Barron's Garage was in a 1932 Keystone Motorist directory. Still, having lived in Carversville for many years, I do know a little more about Barron himself. (I know, also, that he's one of the men in this photo, since his great-grandson pointed him out to me, but maddeningly I've forgotten which one. Maybe the mechanic-looking fellow in the overalls?)

Sylvanus Barron was born October 31, 1870 in Springfield Township, but was living in Solebury with his parents by the time he was 8. He married Sarah Sine in 1897 and their daughter, Florence, was born in 1899.

For many years the Barrons owned and operated the Carversville Inn — in fact, in 1920, Sylvanus's grandson was born in what would become, some 90 years later, the bedroom of my apartment.

Sylvanus Barron and his wife Sarah both died in 1943: She in April, he in September. They're buried in the Carversville Cemetery, along with their daughter Florence (1899-1983), her husband James Bertles Kling (1895-1984), Florence and James's son Sylvanus Barron Kling (1920-1963), and his wife Elizabeth Weddle Kling (1923-1999). Sylvanus and Elizabeth's son, Bob Kling, lives down the road, making him a fourth-generation Carversvillian (and generally a wonderful human being, regardless).

Washington O Crouthamel: Ottoway House, Buckingham

This image comes from a scanned film negative in SC-29-05, the Arnold Brothers negative collection at the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society. Eventually it was published as Postcard 112.

Washington O Crouthamel — I'm assuming he's the one in the suit jacket — was born in Bedminster Township in 1848. He seemed to lose interest easily: In his book A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, William W H Davis gives an exhaustive account of the various positions (clerk, store owner, traveling salesman, hotel keeper) and locations (Tinicum, Philadelphia, New Galena, Doylestown, Gardenville) where Crouthamel had plied his trade at the time of the edition's 1905 publication.

By the time Newton Arnold took this photo for the postcard series on September 12, 1907, Crouthamel was the proprietor of Ottoway House in Buckingham. In his delightful book Postcards of Bucks County, PA 2020, (full disclosure: edited by yours truly) Robert Chase Palmer explains that the building was originally built as a private residence in the early 1800s, before becoming a hotel owned by the Righter Family. It was sold to William Buckley and was in the process of being remodeled when it burned on February 13th, 1936. The building was rebuilt and today (2023) is home to Baci Ristorante. Chase has a fantastic website on the Arnold Brothers, including an interactive map and an index of the entire negative collection.

Some fun cropped sections from this photo: Crouthamel posed proudly, ringing a bell on the porch of his newest venture; a man resting, burly arms folded, at the well (is this a well? Correct me if I'm wrong, please); two women relaxing on the sun-dappled balcony; a man in a vest — the bartender? — beside a floppy old spaniel and an advertisement for Wave Line Cut Plug Tobacco.

Hilltown Township school photo: Student IDs

Finding a 1895 class photo where nearly everybody is identified is like History Nerd catnip. 

Images 2 - 4 are cropped so you can get a better look at the students. 5-8 are closeups of my favorites:

5. Melvin Heckler because of his fancy outfit (was he the teacher's son? He's not listed in the obit.)
6. Margaret & Susan Johnson because of their short hair and Margaret's toothache (I hope it's a toothache)
7. Obviously the Mean Girls of Hilltown School
8. Definitely a time-traveler.

Image 9 is the photo's reverse, dated March 19, 1895. Also a typed list of names and a 1963 obituary for the teacher, Melvin Heckler.

And now what you're really here for: those sweet sweet names —

Teacher: Melvin Heckler

Left to Right
Top row (standing): Walter Fellman (partial), Elmer Bishop, James Curley, Wesley Willauer, Harry Heckler, William Courter, Nelson Lapp, Elmer Snyder, Harvey Rickert, Mabel Rosenberger, Mamie Kramer, Bertha Fellman, Barbara Dauber, Lettie Danenhauer, Stella Bloom, Elmina Heckler, _______, Stella Lapp, Flora Ruth, Susan Rosenberger.

Second row: Horace Fellman, _______, James Courter, Gehman, Flora Courter, Bessie Bishop, Minnie Bishop, Ida Bacorn, Esther Lapp, Lillie Hunsberger, Clara Springer, Dora Fretz, Mabel Bloom, Laura Grass.

Front row (sitting): Ross Fellman, Cyrus Heckler, Ammon Heckler, George Dauber, Charles Hunsberger, Nelson Freed, Stella Ruth, Dora Ruth, Margaret Johnson, Susan Johnson, Hattie Bishop, Eva Bishop, Martha Lapp, Eva DeFrain, Beulah DeFrain, Alma Kramer, Bertha Hedrick.

Obituary, February 1963 (partial transcription)
... The Rev Melvin M Heckler, a retired Episcopal priest who entered the ministry after 48 years as a school teacher, died Friday. He was 89. ... he taught for 36 years in Philadelphia public schools ... and began teaching in Hilltown, Bucks County, his native town. Surviving are his wife, the former Mabel Oxford, a daughter, Mrs Grace Lockhart, and two grandchildren.

From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society (sc-29-01, 15-i-001)

William Toler and Charles Lohman, circa 1890

William Toler

For a few weeks now I've been processing MSC 456, the Ruckman Family collection, at the Mercer Museum Research Library. The Ruckmans (and the Harts, with whom they intermarried) were a prominent family in Bucks County and Philadelphia, and there are a handful of other collections in the library that tie into this one. Last week, while searching through the Charles Swain collection (MSC 759), I found a series of beautiful cyanotype photographs. Many showed scenes in Solebury and Buckingham townships — including one of an enormous cow standing placidly in front of the stately Ruckman-Fell family home at Upper York and Greenhill roads in Lahaska — but two caught my eye because they were of black men.

Charles Lohman

 

We don't find many photographs of black people in our collections, especially older photographs (these are most likely from the 1890s). This is partially because central and upper Bucks County had a relatively small number of black residents, but also because when the Bucks County Historical Society was founded, and for a long time afterwards, it was run by well-to-do white men (including a Ruckman) who may not have considered them a part of history worth preserving. We have military stuff out the wazoo, and what feels like cubic miles of boxes containing papers of other well-to-do white men, but very few records of the lives of people of color. (Today the library is staffed almost exclusively by nerdy white women, and we're working hard to remedy that disparity.)

The men in the photos were identified: The photo of the seated older man was marked "Billy Toler" and the other, which showed a smiling man with a little dog, was marked "Charley 'tinker,' Charles Lohman." I scanned the photos (they were only about three inches square), edited them on my computer (they were faded), and did some cursory research.

The "Charley 'tinker'" label was confusing (was the man a Tinker, by trade? Was the dog named Tinker?) and I found no records of a Lohman family living in or around Bucks in the 1890s. "Billy Toler," however, wasn't as difficult.

William Toler (variably spelled Toller) was born around 1815 (his headstone at Mt Gilead Cemetery, the African Methodist Episcopal cemetery at the top of Buckingham Mountain, reads Oct 1815 to Jan 1902) in either North or South Carolina (census records differ). He was a Bucks County resident from at least 1880: On that year's US Census, he's 57 years old and living in the village of Clayton, Buckingham Township, with his wife Mary Ann, age 60, born in Maryland. The only child in the household is 10 year-old Harry Anderson (a number of black families with the surname Anderson appear on the 1880 and 1900 censuses for Buckingham). Harry is marked "at school," while Mary Ann is recorded as keeping house, and William as a day laborer.

In June 1900, the next available census (the 1890 US Census was destroyed), William, age 80, is a widower, living alone. Eighteen months later, he died. And for now, this is all I know.

Source: FindaGrave.com memorial 23905998

The suspicious 1774 death of Henry Beck

One of my favorite things about the collections at the Mercer Museum Research Library is that we have so many diaries. These range from the tedious (a transcribed diary of Joseph Detweiler Nash (MSC 504, folder 3) — mostly he goes to Michigan, surveys roads and reads the Bible) to the strange (John Watson papers, 1792-1835 (MSC 150) — mostly bad poetry but also smallpox inoculations) to the tantalizing (Sarah Kerr Boileau Papers (M-89) — she lived in my Carversville apartment in the late 1800s!)

But one of my favorite — and one of the most celebrated — diaries here is the diary of John Dyer (BM-A-483). John Dyer was a Quaker who lived in Plumstead Township and, from around 1763 through 1805, recorded events both mundane ("I sowed the flax." "I cut the flax." "I brought in the flax.") and extraordinary (August 29, 1769: "About 2 O'clock this morning was seen a Comet or Blazing Star"). Also he calls Plumstead "Plumpsted" and it makes me so happy.

Diary of John Dyer (BM-A-483): July & August, 1775

One of my recent pet projects is a database of events that aren't flax-related, or otherwise everyday recordings of births, marriages, and uneventful deaths (that's been done — you can check out an example here).

Yesterday I started reading entries from 1774 and found one that really tickled my research bone.

Diary of John Dyer (BM-A-483): December 1773 - January 1774

On January 15, 1774, Dyer writes "The Crowner was at William Merediths about his servant mans Deth" Wow! I thought. Murder? 

The following entry, January 19, reads "And him and wife sent to Jail this Day to newtown" And murderers!

Then, on January 22, in classic John Dyer style: "the man was taken up and two Doctors from Philada. Cut him open and examined his internals"

That last one sent me over the edge. What did those Philada Doctors find in the servant mans internals? I didn't even know forensic science was a thing in the 18th century! (I am vastly uneducated about some things, believe it or not.)

The Merediths aren't mentioned again in the diary — and the "servant man" isn't even given a name — and so I decided to find out what the deal was. 

I began by gathering court records. This, for example, is the Coroner's Inquest John Dyer mentions in his January 15 entry (it took me a while to understand what he meant by "Crowner")

Transcription:

An Inquisition Indented taked at the Bucks [illegible] Township of Plumsted in the County of Bucks in the Provence of Pennsylvania the 15th Day of January AD 1774 before George Fell Gent Coroner of the County of Bucks upon Sight and View of the Body of a Certen Henry Beck then and there lying dead Upon the Oaths and Affermations of
Alexander Brown, James Shew, Cephas Child, Henry Child, Benjamin Cutter, Nathaniel Brittan, Robert Gibson, Philip Fox, Fransis Titus, Barnet Kepler, Jacob Caster, and William Bowman &c
good and Lawfull men of the County aforesaid who being Swore and Affermations and Charged to inquire on the part of our overign Lord the King when where how and after what maner the Said Henry Beck Came to his Death do say Upon there Oaths and Affermations that William Meredith and Mary his wife late of the Township of Plumsted in the County of Bucks not having the fear of God before there eyes but being moved and Sedused by the instagation of the Divel on the Twelfth Day of January in the Year of out Lord 1774 aforesaid a bought the Midel of the Same Day with forse and armes at Plumsted aforesaid in and Upon the aforsaid Henry Beck there Servant he being an aling man then and there being in the peace of God and of our Said Lord and King felonsesly Volentily and assalt did make AND the aforesaid Mary Meredith with a Certen Club abought two feet in Lenth and abought half the thickness of Mary Fodels arm one of the Evidences which She the Said Mary Meredith then and there held in her hand in and Upon his left Shoulder a bruse did make and also Divers outher wounds which apeard on the Said Servent whereby he Langushing Until the Sixtenth Day of the month and Year aforesaid and then he died &c.

In Testimoney whereof the Said Coroner as well as the Jurors have to this Inquisition Interchangibel Sett our hands and Seals the Day and Year above Written
[signatures and seals]
George Fell Coroner
Alexander Brown, Robert Gibson, James Shaw, Philip Fox, Cephas Child, Francis Tytus, Benjamin Cutler, Barnet Kepler, Jacob Casdor, Nathaniel Britain, William Bowman

(If you don't feel like trying to puzzle out Ye Olde Timey Document, it says that County Coroner George Fell came to Plumstead and talked to 12 guys about the suspicious death of Henry Beck — his name, at last — and they told him that on January 12, around noon, Mary Meredith took a small club and beat Beck, who was her servant, on the shoulder and elsewhere. Henry Beck died four days later, on January 16.

I thought I'd add some more images and transcriptions from the research I did back when I was really obsessed with The suspicious 1774 death of Henry Beck. 

Henry Beck, from what I can tell, was Born in the Netherlands and arrived in Bucks County in 1773 and was indentured to William Meredith in September that same year, for a term of seven years.¹

Possible related news item: Philadelphia, January 18, 1773. Just arrived from Rotterdam, in the Brigantine Morning-star, Captain George Dempster (and now to be seen at Mr Martin Knoll’s, the upper End of Second Street) a parcel of healthy Palatines; whose Freights are to be disposed of, by enquiring of Enoch Story, Broker.

At the time of Henry's death, Mary and William Meredith has only been married about six months. On August 2, 1773, John Dyer had recorded "Mary Shocke or Steiner married to Wm Meredith" in his diary. Paging back almost exactly a year, his entry for August 25, 1772 reads "John Shokea married to Mary Steiner."

So what happened to John Schoke/Shokea? Well, "John Shokea killed with a waggon about noon this Day," Dyer writes on October 26 that same year. 

I actually made a nerdy little database of events for this in Notion. Here's a screenshot: 

Three days after his initial inquest on January 15, Coroner George Fell returned and conducted two more interviews. The one with Mary Foddel, (I can't tell whether she's a servant in the household or just a visitor) is pretty interesting.

1774 January 18 Mary Foddel deposition

Transcription, with paragraph breaks added because yeesh, wall of text:

The Deposition of Mary Foddel taken by George Fell Coroner of the County of Bucks on the Eighteenth Day of January 1774

Who saith 

That on the Twelfth Day of January 1774 When I came to the House of William Meredith the Servant Man was sitting in the Corner, eating his Dinner and he was Trembling very much, he was eating Potatoes with the Skin on and had some Buckwheat Cake with them, his Mistress told him to get up, he could eat his Meal fast enough _Now you want to eat a whole Day at your Potatoes_ Damn you Get up you have eat enough_ 

She took the plate from him, and he kept one Potatoe & a piece of Cake, She set the Plate of Potatoes on the Dresser, Then he went into the Corner, So Meredith & his Wife ordered the Servant to go on the Floor and Dance for that Gentlewoman So he went and danced, 

I told them to bid him leave off, for he did not look like a Dancer, So he left off and went to the dresser, and took up the Cup to drink, then his Mistress took it from him, and Says Damn you -- you shan't have another Drink of Cyder, for you are as drunk as a hog. 

Then Meredith said to his Wife let him have some more Drink, but he Got none, So he went to the Chimney Corner again, Then they bid him Sing, So he singed some Dutch Songs, 

So his Master told him to come, and sit down by him, then he was going to sit by his Master, and his Mistress took him by the Jacket and pulled him back, So she pushed him Down on a Chair, and Says, God Damn you_ you good for nothing bugbear [?], 

So she took up a Club about Two feet in length, and about half as thick as my Arm and gave him Two Strokes on his left Shoulder, Midling hard, 

Then Meredith told his Wife she should not lick him, his Wife told him, She would not take it of her own Father, for him ... before his Master, So his Master told him to come, and sit down by him again, then I told him in Dutch not to go that way, or else he would Get another licking. 

So then he went round and Sat down by his Master, and he told him to sing, So he Singed, then he went into the Chimney Corner again, then his Master told him to go and Buss [kiss] me -- So I told him he should not send him to Buss me for I would not let him 

So he told him three or four times more to buss me, So I got up and said he should not come, for he should not buss me for a Dollar, 

Then Meredith Said if you wont let him you can push him down for he is Very Weak, either on the floor or in the Fire, So I told him in dutch not to come or I would push him off. 

The he stroaked his Master's Face, and bussed him, Then he went into the chimney Corner, and his Master had a pint of Cyder by the Fire, and offered him a Drink, Then his Mistress took up a Stick and told him if he did take it, She would knock it out of his Hand, So then his Master told him he should have some, 

Then he took hold of the Pint, Then his Mistress took hold of the pint And throwed the Cyder in the Fire, Then She Damned him again and told him he should not have no more Cyder for the must go and Cut Straw, and he would cut himself and then We shall have the blame, Then his Master sent him to the Barn to Cut Straw, So then I went home and Said no more As Witness my Hand

her
Mary X Fodel
mark

I Certify the above Writing to be a true Copy of Mary Fodel's Deposition taken before me

George Fell 

Coroner

Wow. So that's what it was like in the Meredith household. Mary Meredith wants Henry Beck to sing and dance, then she beats him with a club; William wants Beck to keep drinking and also to go kiss Mary Foddel. Instead, Henry Beck is stroking William's face and kissing him. Then he goes to cut some hay and drops dead. What the heck else went on in that place?

The day after Fell interviewed Mary Foddel, Mary and William Meredith were taken to jail in Newtown. They were still there in April, according to the Court of Oyer and Terminer:

Return of kings Prisoners Now in The Custody of Samuel Biles Sherriff of Bucks County to Be Tried at a Court of Oyer & Terminer To be held at Newtown This Fifth Day of April Anno Domini 1774

Viz;

William & Mary Meredith for comitting an assault upon the Body of Henry Beck Their servant Man on the 12th day of January Anno Domini 1774 Whereby he Languishing untill The fourteenth & Then Died as it is said &c

That same year, the Merediths were found not guilty:

What happened to them after that? I can't tell you much at this point. William Meredith appears in the 1798 Direct Tax for Plumstead Township, so either he was still alive or it's somebody else with the same name. It's been a few years since I did this research, and I've gotten a little better at it, so ... Fingers crossed?

---

1. Record of Indentures of Individuals Bound Out as Apprentices, Servants, Etc. Philadelphia, PA, USA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1905.

Newlin Williams: Lyre & Lily

This article, written by Mercer Museum Librarian Terry A. McNealy, appeared in the November/ December 1986 issue of Mercer Mosaic, a Bucks County Historical Society publication which ran from 1984 through 1990. I found the item in our collection (SC-14, #2983) and scanned a sampling of its pages so we could enjoy it in color.

One of the pleasures of processing collections that were acquired by the library decades ago but never catalogued is finding particular items that are revealing of the details of Bucks County's past. One such discovery came in a box of books and other items from the estate of Dr Joseph B Walter of Solebury, a physician, poet and amateur historian who died in 1917. He was a close friend of the Williams family, also of Solebury Township, and the item in question is a small booklet of poems, measuring only three and a half by eight and a half inches. It is called Lyre & Lily, by E Newlin Williams. It is obviously hand-printed, and the cover illustration and other decorations are hand-colored in green and yellow watercolor. Only sixty copies were printed, and the imprint is "The Hedges Print: 1896."

"The Hedges" was the estate of the Williams family on Windy Bush Road, and the Williamses were a remarkable family, interested in photography and other arts as well as printing. Edward Newlin Williams was the youngest of the three children of John S Williams, a prominent farmer whose business interests included the Bucks County Trust Company, the Farmers' and Mechanics' Insurance Company, and the Delaware Bridge Company.

Newlin was born in 1874, and was thus a lad of seventeen when he produced his book of poems. We have not yet found any description of the printing press at The Hedges, but it must have been one of the first, if not the first, private presses in the county.

Private-press printing has a long history, reaching back, for instance, to Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill press near Twickenham, England, in the 18th century. The modern private-press movement, though, concerned not with being a profitable business but with fine design, typography, illustration and production, is generally considered to date from 1891, when William Morris set up the Kelmscott press near London. Thus it seems unusual that only five years later a young Quaker in Solebury was inspired to try his hand at such a venture. His efforts may not compare with those of the great private presses of Morris and the other that followed him in the Arts and Crafts Movement, but he may at least deserve notice in the realm of local history.

We have no knowledge of other productions of The Hedges press. Newlin went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898. (His brother, Carroll R Williams, became a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, but lived at The Hedges.) Newlin, alas, died around the end of January  1902, at the age of twenty-six. (On a trip to New Hampshire, he became lost in the mountains and died of exposure. His body was not found until the end of February.) The Hedges suffered a disastrous fire in later years, so the press and its files have evidently perished. Nevertheless, the Lyre & Lily survives as testimony of one Bucks Countian's early interest in the art of fine printing.

Cat and Fiddle and the Point Pleasant Witch House — discovery!

 

 

At the end of the day yesterday, I decided to just look through every postcard in group 44 — that's Tinicum — the SC-36, the Mercer Museum Library's Postcard Collection. There were over 250 of them (really, how many Sandcastle Winery postcards do we need?) but it was worth it. 

First of all, I found a Cat and Fiddle postcard I'd never seen before. And then I grabbed a magnifying glass and looked closer ... and there she was!

 

Cool car, too.

The back was postmarked 1939

I found a little more about Joseph Aaron in Delaware Canal Journal, by Carolyn P. Yoder, published in 1972:

The old water wheel at the end of the feeder adds a picturesque charm to the surroundings. This wheel, connected to an electric generator in the adjoining building, was installed in 1932 by Joseph Aaron, an ex-circus performer. Aaron purchased the property below the lock, including an old building which had been an inn from stagecoach days. A building along the highway above the inn was originally a stable for canal mules. The old inn, which Aaron used as a woodworking shop, is now an attractive dwelling house. He converted the stable into an apartment on the second floor and a restaurant on the first floor, which he operated as The Cat and Fiddle. This building is recognized by a large coffee pot at top one of the chimneys. The generator at the feeder supplied electricity to both buildings.

So there you have it: In 1932, former trapeze artist Carrie Aaron purchased and old inn just below Smithtown, in Tinicum Township, along with a stable for canal mules (the last canal boat having only passed by the previous October). Carrie and her husband Joseph, formerly known as the circus daredevil Diavolo, transformed the buildings into a woodworking shop and an a restaurant and inn, which they called The Cat and Fiddle. The decorated it magnificently and operated for almost a decade, until decreased spending due to rationing during World War II forced them to close. 

 

Joseph went to work at a Doylestown woodworking mill, and in 1945 the Aarons sold the property to Wayne and Emma McGhee, who in turn sold it in turn to Matthew and Mary Hartigan in 1945, who then sold it to Benjamin and Florence Peter in 1953. 

 

The Peter family continued to operate the Cat in Fiddle — I know this from hearing multiple firsthand accounts from people still living who were lucky enough to visit it as children. One woman told me how, in the mid-1960s, she and a friend were exploring the back of the property and there, backed up against the canal, was a tiny cottage. "We crept up and peered in through the windows," she told me, "and everything inside was in miniature! A tiny table with tiny chairs, just the right size for us."

 

(I've heard about this tiny building, though I can't remember where. People referred to it as "Tom Thumb's cottage.")

I love Bucks County. Sometimes everything feels like such a fairy tale.

Postcard from the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society (SC-36, 44-091)

Closing in on the Point Pleasant Witch House

A couple weeks ago my coworker Annie Halliday was looking for a fun Halloween image to post for the library, and plucked two images out of our postcard collection that I hadn't seen in a long time: the Point Pleasant Witch House.

Although I've got a strong suspicion that the Witch House was built by Joseph Aaron, the retired circus daredevil who built and ran the Cat and Fiddle Inn along with his wife Carrie, a former trapeze artist, I don't feel confident enough yet to state that as a fact.

The time periods seem to more or less match up — although the postcards aren't postmarked, a cursory bit of research tells me that the stamp boxes on the verso sides (DOPS on one card and AZO on the other) place the manufacture of the paper from about 1925 through 1942. 

This gels with the Aarons' Cat and Fiddle timeline. Carrie B Aaron first purchased the property from Tinicum Pines Association (the TPA is a whole other research rabbit hole I definitely don't have time to go down) in 1932 (Bucks County Deed Book 609, Page 25). The Inn ran for about a decade — in which time Joseph Aaron also built a water wheel below the house (powered by the canal? The river? I'm not sure yet) which he used to provide electricity for his woodworking shop — and then closed in 1942, citing low business due to wartime rationing. In 1945, the Aarons sold their property to Wayne and Emma McGhee.

So like I said, the timeline matches up, more or less. The aesthetic matches up, don't you think? (I do.) The one thing that's planted a little seed of doubt for me is the distances. Old advertisements for the Cat and Fiddle have always described it as "two miles above Point Pleasant." The Witch House postcard, however, is labeled "1/2 mile north of Point Pleasant, PA." 

Still. The acreage laid out in Carrie Aaron's 1932 deed is a whopping 26.329 acres, but there's a lot of legal metes and bounds stuff in the deeds that I don't understand — the Tinicum Pines Association contained something like a dozen parcels of land, and when the whole batch of them were sold in 1967 (the entirety belonging, by then, to Winifred Gauvreau, widow of journalist Emile Gauvreau) the acreage added up to 87.5 acres. A Perkasie Herald article published on October 5 of that year described the property as having "about a mile and a quarter of [river] frontage, of which one mile is Prahls Island."

Obviously I need to do a little more digging.

 

Postcard from the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society (SC-36, 44-225)
Clippings from Newspapers.com

A tiny, battered anchor of hope

 Something lovely discovered today by research volunteer Nancy Freudenthal:

My dear Mr Mercer -

Just after you left me at the reception the other night I saw right at my feet in the moonlight this tiny, battered anchor of hope, and have ever since been possessed with the idea that it was meant for you. I didn't send it at first because I was afraid you would think me a superstitious idiot, but I shall risk that. Since you threw away your good luck in the horse shoe perhaps this will bring you hope for comfort, and in that day there were signs and wonders.

Very sincerely yours
Sally Blair Fairchild
August twenty fifth [1888]
Madison Wisconsin

Sarah (Sally) Fairchild, daughter of General Lucius Fairchild, was born in October 1870, making her just 17 years old the night she saw a tiny metal anchor in the moonlight and (after some indecision) sent it over 900 miles away, along to Henry Mercer, who was then 32, and (in my opinion, anyway) very dashing indeed. Aww, Sally.

Sally grew up, and in 1894 married attorney Seldon Bacon. In 1900 they were living in New York, at 393 West End Avenue, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. They had two daughters and two female servants, around the same age as Sally.

In early 1902 the couple lost an infant son from whooping cough, and on August 25 of that year, Sally died as well — coincidentally 14 years to the day she sealed the tiny, battered anchor of hope in an envelope, marked the return address Personal, and sent it to Henry, some 900 miles to the east. She was 32 years old.

Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, October 26, 1894

New York Tribune, January 9, 1902

Letter from the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society (MSC 291, Series 1, Folder 11)
Clippings from Newspapers.com
Headstone image from Findagrave.com